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Post by Ben on Aug 21, 2023 7:27:36 GMT -5
I'm happy I could help! Feel free to ask more questions as they arise.
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Post by Ben on Aug 20, 2023 11:46:07 GMT -5
Hello! Regarding the smoothness issue, my guess is that you just need to refine longer. The little stone grinders are very simple machines. The longer they run, the smoother the chocolate. It sounds like you're doing 12 hours total, which is very short for a batch that size. I would try at least doubling it. If it's still not smooth, grind some more! Stone grinders get a lot less efficient once the chocolate is higher than the stone wheel axles. You can definitely put your existing batches back in to grind further (note that you're refining/grinding, not 'conching'). Cocoa butter and sugar can take far higher temperatures than 130F. Cocoa butter's smoke point is about 450F and sugar starts caramelizing at almost 340F. When I used stone grinders, my chocolate would generally always be at 140F or above, and now that I use a universal, I push that temperature even higher for some cacao origins. My final tempering temperature is generally around 92F as I find that easier to work with. You may want to try warming your scraper to around the temperature of the chocolate. Are you vibrating the chocolate after scraping? Cleaning molds is the worst. It's not necessary to clean them between every batch. You can just polish them with a cotton swab or microfiber to remove any release marks. If your manufacturer says they're dishwasher-safe, I'd give it a shot. The concern is that if they're polycarbonate, the detergent could cause tiny scrapes that could eventually be seen on the bars.
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Post by Ben on Aug 14, 2023 8:19:08 GMT -5
The manual should give you the recommended cleaning procedure. If it didn't come with a manual, I'm sure FBM would send you one.
I think most/all tempering machines can be cleaned with water. The key is just making sure it is completely dry before using again.
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Post by Ben on Aug 12, 2023 22:25:27 GMT -5
Hello! I haven't tried one myself, but I've heard from a couple chocolate makers who have tried some. If I remember right, they said it worked ok, but that it wasn't particularly efficient and resulted in a darker cocoa butter. The founder of SRSLY Chocolate in Austin, TX used one and made a 'dirty white chocolate' from the cocoa butter it produced.
It probably depends on your goals. If you just want to make a little cocoa butter from your cacao to add to a dark or milk chocolate, it should probably work fine at a very small scale. If you're hoping to get a pure, clean butter that could be used for a white chocolate, it may not work for you.
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Post by Ben on Aug 11, 2023 13:41:20 GMT -5
Yep, I'll run it with a bit of hot water to help with cleaning. Some of the bigger grinders that don't have removable bowls recommend cleaning the machine that way.
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Post by Ben on Aug 10, 2023 10:56:53 GMT -5
Also, while the bowl and stones are not dishwasher-safe, I believe the center piece that holds the wheels and scrapers is. Check your manual before quoting me on that, though.
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Post by Ben on Aug 9, 2023 15:43:36 GMT -5
I'm not sure about that. I've never attempted making cookie butter from a moist cookie. Worst case, just dry them out in the oven before grinding.
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Post by Ben on Aug 9, 2023 8:11:57 GMT -5
My cookie butter recipe is basically 1 part cookies, 0.8 part refined coconut oil, 0.15 part sunflower oil (although this could be any liquid oil). You can use biscoff cookies off the shelf for the traditional speculoos cookie butter, but I think any cookie should more or less work, although you'd want to get rid of any fillings if any. I bake my own cookies for mine.
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Post by Ben on Aug 8, 2023 7:45:50 GMT -5
I'm glad I could help! The blue one is a great little grinder. It's capable of grinding chocolate, but just not intended for it and the warranty won't cover it. I've used one to grind various nut butters, coconut butter, and cookie butter.
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Post by Ben on Aug 7, 2023 13:12:21 GMT -5
There are several Premier grinders available. Two that are intended for chocolate and two that aren't. The small blue one, which you have, is not intended for chocolate. That being said, many of us used those to make chocolate before the red one came out. The small red one looks the same as the one you have, but the plastic piece in the middle is red and has some upgraded parts to stand up to chocolate use--bearings, etc.--the most important of which is a temperature-controlled shutoff mechanism. There have been a couple fires caused by the blue one overheating when being used for chocolate. I would recommend returning this one and getting the red one direct from Diamond Custom Machines at www.melangers.com/There are also slightly larger, tilting versions of both the chocolate and non-chocolate grinders.
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Post by Ben on Aug 3, 2023 7:48:26 GMT -5
Let us know how it goes! You may have better luck if you increase the amount of cocoa butter relative to the other ingredients.
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Post by Ben on Aug 2, 2023 11:48:00 GMT -5
Yep, agreed with Thomas. Not really chocolate but sounds tasty.
I also agree that it's probably impossible to temper. The low-ish percentage of cocoa butter, the moisture from the dates, and the fat from the cashews and coconut, are all going to cause problems.
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Post by Ben on Jul 26, 2023 8:10:04 GMT -5
Yep, the little one will be able to handle that amount with no problem--with the caveat about the moisture in the dates mentioned in my previous comment, but that's an issue inherent in chocolate making, not in the machine.
The larger one may be a bit more powerful to be able to handle larger batches, but the little ones will have plenty of power. Build quality is the same on both as they're from the same company. I've been running several of the little ones for years.
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Post by Ben on Jul 25, 2023 11:52:38 GMT -5
Oops, I should have mentioned that you really don't want to be grinding anything with any moisture with the chocolate. Water and chocolate are not friends and can cause the chocolate to seize. I'm not sure of the moisture level of dates, but they may be a problem. You could experiment with fully drying them first in a dehydrator.
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Post by Ben on Jul 25, 2023 10:48:18 GMT -5
Either of those should work well for you. There's not really a quality difference between the two--just a size difference. If you're only ever doing very small batches, I'd recommend getting the smaller one.
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